Ascent of Gothics on 2011-11-05

Ascent Trip Report

Armstrong and GothicsLil-Yeti, the Red Goat and I spent Friday night in Lake Placid so we could get an earlier start than if we drove over in the morning. As we headed to the parking, the radio said that is was 12 degrees in Saranac lake (but its always colder there!).Got to the Huberts parking a bit before 8. We missed Shane’s post that he broke down on the Northway so we waited until 8:30, left a note on our windshield and headed down the road toward the Ausable Club. At the register the thermometer read a balmy 18 degrees, but there is not a cloud in the sky so it will warm up (we hope). We walked a ways along the Lake Road until we the sign for the East River Trail, which we followed until the second bridge crossing the Ausable River. The walk along the West River trail was enjoyable, just needed to be careful of all the hidden bumps, rocks and holes hidden by the newly fallen leaves.We arrived at the Beaver Meadow Falls at 10:20 where we enjoyed the gorgeous views of the falls. Above were very blue skies and across the middle of the falls was a rainbow, just wonderful.The trail to Gothics quickly changed to a steep hike when we ran into the first ladder of the day. As we got above 3000’ we ran into just a dusting of snow and shortly there after we encountered ice. It wasn’t long before we decided to put on our micro-spikes. There were also a few spots where we encountered large boulders that required a team effort to get every one up and over.We arrived safely at the col and the junction with the Range Trail at 1:15. At this point, Lil-Yeti and I headed north to Armstrong and the Red Goat headed south to Gothics. The trail was ‘dry’ because the mud was frozen. Lil-Yeti and I popped out to a gorgeous view on Armstrong at 1:40. The west facing side of the trees were covered with a blanket of white ice. Looked really cool. We had the summit all to ourselves as we had lunch and enjoyed the views. At one point the Red Goat called on the walkie-talkie that she had reached the summit of Gothics, her first ADK 46 peak! So after finishing our lunch we headed down the trail to join the Red Goat on Gothics.We reached the very busy summit of Gothics at 2:35. The summit here was much busier than over at Armstrong, but the views were just as spectacular! Realizing it was getting late and the days are getting pretty short, we headed off the summit just before 3:00. We carefully made it off the icy portion of the mountain and got to the East River Trail at 5:15 and then started down the Lake Road at 5:25, we signed out at the register at 6:10 and arrived back at the parking at 6:25, the last half hour in the dark.This was the best hike we had in the Adirondacks thus far. The trails were in great condition, and the views from the summits were just spectacular!